- We created this place, weaned the grotesque dictators.
And we expect the Arabs to trust Bush's promise?
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- It gets weirder and weirder. As his helicopters are falling
out of the sky over Iraq, President Bush tells us things are getting even
better. The more we succeed, he says, the deadlier the attacks will become.
Thank God the Americans now have a few - a very few - brave journalists,
like Maureen Dowd, to explain what is happening.
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- The worse things are, the better they get. Iraq's wartime
information minister, "Comical Ali", had nothing on this; he
claimed the Americans weren't in Baghdad when we could see their tanks.
Bush claims he's going to introduce democracy in the Middle East when his
soldiers are facing more than resistance in Iraq. They are facing an insurrection.
So let's take a look at the latest lies. "Sixty years of Western nations
excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing
to make us safe," he told us on Thursday. "Because in the long
run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty." Well
said, Sir. George Bush Jr sounds almost as convincing as, well, Tony Blair.
It's all a lie. "We" - the West, Europe, America - never "excused
and accommodated" lack of freedom. We endorsed lack of freedom. We
created it in the Middle East and supported it.
-
- When Colonel Ghaddafi took over Libya, the Foreign Office
thought him a much sprightlier figure than King Idriss. We supported the
Egyptian generals (aka Gamal Abdul Nasser) when they originally kicked
out King Farouk. We - the Brits - created the Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan.
We - the Brits - put a Hashemite King on the throne of Iraq. And when the
Baath party took over from the monarchy in Baghdad, the CIA obligingly
handed Saddam's mates the names of all senior communist party members so
they could be liquidated.
-
- The Brits created all those worthy sheikhdoms in the
Gulf. Kuwait was our doing; Saudi Arabia was ultimately a joint Anglo-US
project, the United Arab Emirates (formerly the Trucial State) etc. But
when Iran decided in the 1950s that it preferred Mohammed Mossadeq's democratic
rule to the Shah's, the CIA's Kim Roosevelt, with Colonel "Monty"
Woodhouse of MI6, overthrew democracy in Iran. Now President Bush demands
the same "democracy" in present-day Iran and says we merely "excused
and accommodated" the loathsome US-supported Shah's regime.
-
- Now let's have another linguistic analysis of Mr Bush's
words. "The failure of Iraqi democracy," he told us two days
ago, "would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers
to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region."
Here's another take: the failure of the Bush administration to control
Israel's settlement-building on Arab land would embolden terrorists around
the world, increase dangers to the American people and extinguish the hopes
of millions in the region. Now that would be more like it. But no. President
Bush thinks Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "a man of peace".
-
- And then there's that intriguing Bush demand for a revolution
in undemocratic Iran. Sure, Iran is a theocratic state (a necrocracy, I
suspect), but the morally impressive President Mohamed Khatami, repeatedly
thwarted by the dictatorial old divines, was democratically elected - and
by a far more convincing majority than President George Bush Jr in the
last US presidential elections.
-
- Yes, "democracy can be the future of every nation",
Bush tells us. So why did his country support Saddam's viciousness and
war crimes for so many years? Why did Washington give its blessing, at
various stages, to Colonel Ghaddafi, Hafez Assad of Syria, the Turkish
generals, Hassan of Morocco, the Shah, the sleek Ben Ali of Tunisia, the
creepy generals of Algeria, the plucky little King of Jordan and even -
breathe in because the UNOCAL boys wanted a gas pipeline through Afghanistan
- the Taliban?
-
- A break here. Fouad Siniora is the finance minister of
Lebanon. He is a believer in the American way of life, a graduate of the
American University of Beirut and a former lecturer there, an ex-executive
of Citibank. He has a valid American visa in his passport. Yet he has been
telephoned by the American embassy in Beirut to be told he will not be
permitted entry to the US.
-
- Why? Because last year he gave $ 660 at a Ramadan fast-breaking
iftah to a charity that runs educational projects and orphanages in Lebanon.
The organisation is run by Sayed Mohamed Fadlallah - once described by
the Western press as the "spiritual adviser" to Hizbollah. CIA
sources long ago revealed that they tried to kill Fadlallah - they failed,
but their Saudi-prepared car bomb killed 75 civilians - so Siniora, an
Americanophile to his fingertips, is persona non grata in the US. Fadlallah
is not Hizbollah's "spiritual adviser" - so he could hardly withdraw
his support for its victory over the Israeli army in Lebanon three years
ago - but the loony- tune "security" legislation in the US has
deprived Siniora of any further contact with a country he admires.
-
- Yes, roll on democracy. Bring 'em on. The new "Rummyworld"
war on terror is in Iraq. Ban the press from filming the return of dead
American soldiers to the US. Liberty is what it's about, democracy. "Accommodating
the lack of freedom in the Middle East", indeed. We created this place,
drew its borders, weaned their grotesque dictators. And we expect the Arabs
to trust Mr Bush's promise?
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://www.bestofdesign.co.uk/antiwarblog/archives/000079.html
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